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It’s a record label that carries a quote from muck-raking journalist H.L. Mencken as its motto, was largely responsible for ending the death penalty in Illinois and has provided work for hundreds of otherwise unemployable people.

Bloodshot Records, set up in inner city Chicago 15 years ago this month, is one of those labels you always take notice of when there’s news of a release or one of their artists is touring. The label pioneered its own sound – called “insurgent country” because it was different to the Nashville sound and didn’t fit with what was being recorded in Austin, Texas or Bakersfield in California.

The genius behind Bloodshot came from two punk drummers, Rob Miller and Nan Warshaw (the third founder was sometime music writer Eric Babcock, who now runs a Nashville label, Checkered Past) and the company’s journey since 1994 tells the story of recorded music over the years.

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